Troublesome Phone Calls

by Dennis

This is somewhat akin to what Jim wrote about a number of weeks ago telling of his great fortune in winning vacations and a host of other prizes. The other night I was interrupted while watching, a Florida football game, by a phone call from a survey taker. He was identified on my caller ID as a Florida caller, how could I resist?

“Mister DeFreitas?” he asked. ”My name is Todd.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“I’m taking a survey…”

I said, “Stop right there. Are you getting paid to gather this information?”

“Yes,” he said.

“How much will you pay me to respond?”

“I beg your pardon?” said Todd.

“Well you get paid to gather information. Your company compiles it and sells to an advertiser, who in turn sells it to a product or service provider, who thereby tries to sell it back to me. I, being the one who provided you with the raw data for everybody to make money, am asked to give you that to you for nothing. I don’t think so. I want twenty million dollars for my answers.”

The silence was deafening. “I don’t think so Mister D,” he said softly. He obviously had grown a personnel attachment to me.

“Then call me back with a counteroffer,” I said. “Now let me get back to the ball game and let this be a lesson to you… “Never interrupt a member of the Gator Nation while watching a game, especially when they are losing.”